Within Frantz Fanon's landmark text, Peau Noire, Masques Blancs [Black Skin, White Masks] (1952), one finds one of the most quoted and discussed chapters of his oeuvre: 'L’Experience vecue de l’homme noir’ [The Fact of Blackness]. A pinnacle of postcolonial critique, Fanon took up the mantle of W.E.B. Du Bois and his notion of double-consciousness and reinterpreted in the post-Freudian age. Therein Fanon discussed how black subjectivity is determined from without by a white majority that defines their blackness for them, and the psychological impact of such a condition, thus coining the term 'corporeal malediction'. While a groundbreaking text, Fanon's argument that the black man cannot exist, ontologically, separate from whiteness, was subsequently critiqued for ignoring the possibility of self-determination from within the black community as well as for ignoring the struggle of black women entirely.

This panel seeks to re-examine Fanon's concept through readings that are informed by the current sociocultural climate. Some questions that the panel hopes to address, among others:- What is relevance of corporeal malediction to modern life (from Trump to Black Lives Matter and everything in between)?- What is the relevance of corporeal malediction to current debates in academia (from postcolonialism, critical race theory and others)?- To what extent do authors and academics continue to engage with Fanon's concept?- How is corporeal malediction manifested in literature, the arts, media and day-to-day life, and what conclusions can one draw from these?